A. Issue 2: strategies
for choosing among data-collection methods

1.In the last decades, which have been characterized by the
globalization of the economy, new issues have appeared that are difficult to
capture in a conventional census. Therefore, the census is an inadequate tool
to fully capture and to monitor the extent of some changes. This produces a
true “hiatus” between social and statistical realities that can be solved only
by redefining the census and adopting improved strategies to accompany the
census. The pressure from minorities (indigenous and disabled people) to know
their total number, characteristics and location in the territory in order to
defend their fundamental rights leads to increasing requirements for
information from censuses.

2.For this reason, during the planning of the next census of population
(October 2001), the national office of statistics (INDEC) in Argentina has
undertaken diverse activities together with public and private users that
intend to expand information on the topics mentioned above. On the one hand,
strategies to improve the validity of the results and to make some aspects of
the “social” reality more statistically “real” are being developed. On the
other hand, methodologies to understand phenomena of a very complex nature that
have not been properly captured in censuses are being studied and tested.
Special groups include the disabled population, indigenous peoples and the
population of international migrants, particularly those from neighbouring
countries.

3.Several authors and the experience of census taking indicate the
difficulty of measuring the first two phenomena through a unique source like
the census. Since it is a mass undertaking, conducted during a limited time and
with limited training of enumerators, it can focus only on phenomena that can
be easily measured.

4.Disability is a
difficult subject to deal with in the census, given its multidimensional nature
and the array of available conceptual definitions. Nowadays three specific
concepts are used: deficiency, disability and handicap. The first one refers to
the loss or abnormality of a structure or psychological function, being
physiological or anatomical. The second concept refers to the restriction or
absence of a capacity (due to a deficiency or disability) to perform an
activity that is considered normal according to age, sex, judgment and social
situation. The third refers to a disadvantageous situation for an individual as
a result of a deficiency or disability that limits or impedes normal
performance.

5.The identification of indigenous
people in the census also constitutes a challenge, given the complexity of
its conceptualization and its difficult social visibility. This is especially
true in a country such as Argentina, which has as its “official story” the
great migratory flows that came from Europe and built our country as it is
today.

6.Different criteria are used to quantify indigenous peoples in
censuses. In Latin America, the most widely used criteria are geographic
location, language spoken and self-identification. In North America, the
criterion used is ethnic origin.

7.Finally, there is the problematic study of international migration. The difficulty
is not so much one of identification as it is of the fact that the census is
incapable of accounting for the new modalities and dynamics of spatial mobility
of the people in the context of globalized economic and social spaces. It is in
this context that the knowledge of migratory trajectories, networks of exchange
and circulation of goods and services has become an inevitable issue for the
formulation of public policies.

8.The analysis of these situations and the modalities of measuring
these phenomena through diverse sources, particularly from other countries of
the region, together with the few quantitative experiences of our country, have
led the National Bureau of Statistics to call upon governmental organizations
as well as the non-governmental ones to have experts analyse each topic. At the
same time, the Bureau has kept in mind the different international
recommendations, as well as reality in Argentina. All of these factors
haveshown that there is a need for
special methodology for the study of these topics in the 2001 census.

9.For these three topics, the methodological proposal is to
carry out the census in two phases. First, within the framework of the 2001
census, disabled people, indigenous people, and international migrants in the
households will be identified. The requirements imposed on the design of the
census questions were these:

·It had to be simple for the person who administers the
census to the people, and it had to be easy for the respondent to understand;

·It did not trigger a discussion between the respondent
and the person who administers the question, so as not to affect the
measurement of other habitual aspects of the census;

·Its concept can be easily reflected during the
training course; and

·Finally, it allows the phenomenon to be registered in
the simplest possible way.

10.In the case of disabled persons, a question on deficiencies, disability and handicaps
will be asked. The question to identify indigenous people in the household
implies self-identification or self-perception and ethnic origin. The need to
combine the criteria of self-identification with ethnic origin or descent lies
in the fact that, knowing our prejudices in Argentina, we wanted to make the
question broad enough to give people the chance to identify themselves in one
way or the other. Both questions are included in the section of the census that
deals with households. Finally, international migrants will be identified from
the place of birth that is being asked of each member of the household.

11.In the second phase of the census, which will be carried out
during 2002, a sample of households with people identified during the census
with these characteristics will be revisited to administer a topic-specific
questionnaire that will allow a more valid characterization of these groups in
Argentina. From the pilot census, complementary studies were carried out for
the three groups during 2000 to validate, on the one hand, the question used in
the census, and on the other hand to improve the understanding of the universe
captured by the census.

12.In the case of people with disabilities, a questionnaire with
30 questions allowed us to describe in detail this difficult-to-measure
phenomenon. In the case of indigenous people, an 18-page questionnaire covered
three dimensions: self-identification, ascendance and language. Finally, the
survey of migrants included the items of trajectories, networks of exchange and
physical and non-physical links among the members of the bordering community.

13.The geographic coverage of the second phase is still to be
defined. This will depend upon the analysis of these groups as identified in
the census.

**Direccion Nacional de Estadisticas Sociales y
de Poblacion, Argentina. The views expressed in the paper are those of the author and do not imply
the expression of any opinion on the part of the United Nations Secretariat.